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Our new digital system and ways of volunteering are live

Our new digital system and ways of volunteering are live

Our new digital system is now live. Read more

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Census

Find out why Scouts carry out an annual census and what support is available to help complete it

Why we have a census

Scouts carry out an annual census to create a detailed picture of the young people and adults that make up our membership. It's not just about how many members we have, it's our chance to find out about the diversity and make up of Scouts in our communities.

Knowing who our members are helps to better inform the services we provide to meet the needs of our members, so it's really important you provide us with the most accurate details possible about Scouts in your community and its members. 

The youth census figures also inform the payment of the UK HQ Membership Fee and associated membership fees at each level of the movement.

Getting more help with the census

We have written a guide for each of the census return types and have also updated our FAQs. If you've never done the census before or want to prepare for it, we suggest reading through the return guides first. 

You can get assistance from the Scout Support Centre by emailing  support@scouts.org.uk or get in touch  via Live Chat  by clicking on the purple ‘Support’ button in the bottom right corner of the webpage.  
 
Please note the Support Centre will be closed from 25 December 2024 until 2 January 2025.

Census 2025

The next census will take place on 31 January 2025 and follow the timeline below: 

  • Week commencing  9 December 2024 - Passwords sent, and the Census site opens 

  • 31 January 2025 – Census closes and the deadline for all submissions 

  • 14 February 2025 - Deadline for approvals 

Locally Counties/Areas/Scottish Regions and Districts may set their own deadlines for Census to emake sure that all returns are approved locally ahead of the final closing date on 14 February 2025.

Please check with your District or County/Area/Scottish Region Lead Volunteer for local deadlines.

In England and Wales, the relevant Regional Lead Volunteer has to review and approve all English County and Welsh Area returns by 14 February deadline so we recommend that County and Area Lead Volunteers agree a final County/Area submission date before this.

FAQs

Regular questions that pop up about the census systems, and why we ask some of the questions that we do.

Check out our FAQs

Approving the census

Read through our guide for approvers to learn more about approving census returns.

Census approvals

Tools to support the census

Read through our return guides, and access all the tools you need to gather the information to complete the census from parents, volunteers and young people.

Support and downloads